


He's lost the will to live

by msdownwithlove



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Character Death, Father-Son Relationship, What if Hiccup wasn't so stubborn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 05:54:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20271043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msdownwithlove/pseuds/msdownwithlove
Summary: Some people lost their knives or their mugs – that was a usual thing for Vikings as well as for tribes to lose their heirs and for fathers to lose their sons. Hiccup wasn’t an ordinary Viking - he lost the will to live.





	He's lost the will to live

**Author's Note:**

> Another “what if” for Hiccup and Stoick, set before the first movie. There are a lot of wonderful works, dedicated to them but they all have some sort of happy ending. And I was in the mood for angst, lots and lots of angst – I just couldn’t stop thinking what would happen if Hiccup wasn’t so stubborn.  
It's very short but it was enough to make me cry.  
Thank you for reading!

Hiccup knew that day would come eventually. He patiently waited for it. And when it was finally there, all he could think about was a simple question: what took it so long? He was ready for that every day of his miserable life.

“Gothi,” asked the familiar voice somewhere near him. His dad, he recognized. “Can you cure him?” Fear made words tremble but hope helped them leave the Chief’s lips.

Hiccup Haddock the Third had no strength to open his eyes or even say something. He already knew the answer the elder was scrawling on the floor. Still somebody had to translate it for the Chief, to announce his biggest and the last failure as the heir of Berk.

“No,” Gobber whispered, “there is nothing she can do. He’s lost the will to live.”

The boy knew what he was leaving behind – his dad, home, his room in the forge, full of unfinished inventions, Berk. Its people, needed somebody’s guide, and its forests and coves he didn’t manage to explore, to remember the colours of leaves and to find at least one dragon, hiding somewhere between them. And Astrid… 

Hiccup felt no pain, his body relaxed and comfortable on the mattress under the warmness of furs as twisted minds disappeared in heavy fog of high fever. Yet his heart was in great agony. There were so many things he had to say to his dad but he doubted Stoick would ever listen to him. He never did; even his son’s sincere apologies. The boy wanted to tell he was so sorry for not being the real son of a Chief, for not trying harder, for failing him over and over again. And he wished his father would forget him as soon as possible and hoped everyone else would as well.

After fifteen years of ignorance, abusing and humiliation the Chief’s son was glad it was coming to an end. Maybe there, in Valhalla, he would find a loving mom he missed so badly or at least one friend just to talk to. And they would never blame him for his skinny body, his clumsiness, his shyness, his uselessness, his inability to kill a dragon or his attempts to be a Viking he’s supposed to be. They would never blame him just for being him. He dreamt of that change. 

“Son,” his father called but he was already gone.

The boat vanished over the horizon, taking the Chief’s son to his first and final journey to the Great beyond. People of Berk watched him till the end as the act of support for their Chief, standing alone and silent on the shore. No anger could defeat the illness which took his boy and no tears could undo what was done.

Some people lost their knives or their mugs – that was a usual thing for Vikings as well as for tribes to lose their heirs and for fathers to lose their sons. Hiccup wasn’t an ordinary Viking - he lost the will to live.


End file.
